Nasser Hussain did not hold back. Saim Ayub scored a pair at Edgbaston, dismissed by Ollie Robinson in both innings, and the former England captain called it exactly what it was.
“The truth is he shouldn’t be here. He came from the CPL and hasn’t played first-class cricket in some time.”
Nasser Hussain, Sky Sports, Day 2 of the 3rd Test, September 10, 2026
“I don’t know who thinks it’s the right thing to fly someone over from foreign conditions, and think they’ll be fine in these conditions against a Dukes ball and Ollie Robinson.”
Nasser Hussain, Sky Sports, Day 2 of the 3rd Test, September 10, 2026
Hussain added that the decision was “showing disrespect to Test match cricket.” He was not wrong.
Ayub’s last first-class match was in January 2025. South Africa versus Pakistan in Cape Town. He suffered an ankle fracture during that game and did not play red-ball cricket again for 20 months.
His next Test innings came at Edgbaston on September 9, 2026, against the best seam attack in the world.
Between those two dates, Ayub played franchise T20 cricket. BPL. PSL. CPL. On August 28, he smashed 102 off 58 balls for Jamaica Kingsmen against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League, hitting eight sixes and six fours. Twelve days later, he walked out to face Robinson with a Dukes ball under overcast Birmingham skies.
He lasted 10 balls in the first innings. Zero runs. Robinson found the edge, and Ayub walked off without troubling the scorers. Pakistan were bowled out for 133 in 33.5 overs. Saud Shakeel top-scored with 43. Nobody else passed 15.
Josh Tongue took 4-42. Robinson finished with 3-15. Jofra Archer claimed 3-25. Pakistan’s top five combined for 17 runs.
England responded with 453. Five batsmen passed fifty. Harry Brook made 75, Dan Lawrence 65, Jamie Smith 69, Emilio Gay 60. Robinson himself hit 50 off 47 balls. The first-innings lead reached 320.
Then Robinson opened the bowling again. Ayub faced one delivery. Edged. Gone. A pair. Abdullah Shafique followed two balls later. Pakistan slipped to 52-2 before rain ended day two, still 268 runs behind with the series already lost.
Nasser Hussain criticises the PCB’s decision to recall Saim Ayub from the CPL to open in the third Test against England 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/onnya9LfHV
— Cricinfo (@cricinfo) September 10, 2026
Ayub traveled roughly 7,000 kilometers from the Caribbean to Birmingham. He returned with two ducks in two innings. The CPL century that made headlines days earlier counted for nothing against a moving red ball.
The Selection That Exposed the Problem
Pakistan made seven changes to their squad after losing the first two Tests. The collapse at Headingley started it. The humiliation at Lord’s sealed it. Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Khurram Shahzad, Aamir Jamal, Ali Usman, and Muhammad Awais Zafar were all dropped.
Five of the seven replacements were uncapped at Test level. Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Gul were removed from the coaching staff. Mike Hesson was brought in as Test coach. Ashley Noffke joined him.
The overhaul changed faces. It changed nothing else. Pakistan were 26-4 inside the first session at Edgbaston. The same batting collapse that defined the Headingley defeat played out again with different names on the scorecard.
Ayub’s recall was the most glaring example. He was pulled out of the CPL mid-tournament. No warm-up match. No first-class preparation. No time to adjust to conditions that bear no resemblance to anything in franchise cricket. The PCB treated a Test match in England like a T20 league game you can slot into overnight.
Insider Read
Your hands remember what they have been doing. That is the reality nobody in Pakistan’s selection committee seems to understand.
Weeks of franchise T20 cricket program your muscle memory to play through the line. Hard lengths, predictable bounce, a white ball that does little after the powerplay. Your weight goes forward, your bat swings in an arc designed to clear the infield. Then you land at Edgbaston. The Dukes ball is moving at 85 mph, seaming off the pitch, swinging late. Robinson bowls a length that demands you leave or defend with soft hands. But your body is still in CPL mode. Your hands push at a ball you should let go. The edge carries to the slips before your brain catches up to what your hands just did.
No net session fixes that. Only time in the middle against red-ball bowling rebuilds the patience and technique that Test cricket demands. Ayub never got that time. He got a plane ticket.
Robinson’s numbers in this series tell the rest of the story. He reached 100 Test wickets at Edgbaston, the first Englishman to hit that milestone with a sub-20 average since a young Ian Botham. Across the three Tests, Robinson has taken 21 wickets at an average under 7. That is the bowler Pakistan asked a franchise T20 player to face with zero preparation.
England lead 2-0 with the whitewash within reach. Pakistan have not crossed 200 in any of their five completed innings this series. Wasim Akram said there was nothing left in Pakistan cricket. Hussain’s verdict on Ayub’s selection proved Akram right in the space of 11 deliveries.
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